Teover

3 Originally, an action of trespass upon the case for the recovery of damages against such person as had "found" another's goods and refused to deliver them on demand, but "converted" them to his own use.* "Whence trover and conversion. In form, a fiction; in substance, a remedy to recover the value of personal chattels wrongfully converted by another to his own use.5 One who, being lawfully in possession, wrongfully parts with possession, to the injury of another, is liable in trover for a conversion.6 Trover is an action on the case. It may be joined with case, or new counts in case added to it by way of amendment.^ Conversion is based upon the idea of an assumption by the defendant of a right of property or a right of dominion over the thing converted, which casts upon him all the risks of an owner; it is therefore not every wrongful intermeddling with or wrongful asportation or wrongful. detention of personal property that amounts to a conversion. Acts which themselves imply an assertion of title or a right of dominion, such as selling, letting, or destroying the property, amount to a conversion, although the defendant may honestly have mistaken his rights; but acts which do not in themselves imply such assertion or right of dominion will not sustain an action of trover, unless done with intent to deprive the owner of the property permanently or temporarily, or unless there has been a demand for it and neglect or refusal to deliver it, which are evidence of a conversion, because they are evidence that the defendant in withholding it claims the right to VTithhold it, which is a claim of a right of dominion. In actions in the nature of trover, the rule of damages is the value of the propert.v at the time of ^ Dunne v. State, ante. 2 Whitney v. City of Lynn, 188 Mass. 343 (1677). 8 F. trover, to find. * ' S Bl. Com. 152. = Cooper V. Chitty, 1 Burr. 31 (1766), Mansfield, J. « Spencer v. Blackraan, 9 Wend. 168 (1838), Savage, Chief Justice. the conversion, diminished, when the property has been returned to and received by the owner, by its value at the time of return.' The rule of damages is the value of the property, with interest from the date of conversion. But this rule may be modified by the relations to the property of the parties to the action. It may be practicable to adjust the rights in one action, indemnifying the, plaintifi; by a sum less than the full value, and avoiding circuity of action. Thus, where the plaintiff has a special property in the goods, his damages, as against the general owner, is the value of his interest only; but as against a stranger, he will be entitled to the full value of the goods, holding the surplus over his own claim as trustee for the general owner." See Conversion, 8; Demand, 2; Detihtje; Waiver.